


The Only One

by twitch



Series: Tonight [1]
Category: Crash Pad (2017), Logan Lucky (2017), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bar Scenes, First Meetings, Gen, M/M, Uncaffeinated Is a Very Serious Ailment, kylux adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 22:12:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13645473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twitch/pseuds/twitch
Summary: Clyde prefers to spend his mornings at home, drinking his coffee while listening to the radio.Monday mornings when the water runs dry are the worst circumstances to leave him uncaffeinated. Forced to go to the local coffee shop he suffers yet another mishap, but the generosity of a stranger saves him. Mellie is of little help. Clyde's fortunes - or shall we call it luck? - don't change until Friday night.





	The Only One

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't what I set out to write. Meaning I had one idea that I was running with and this story doesn't reflect that idea at all. When I wrangle the original idea into coherency there will be a follow up. In the meantime here's the story of Clyde "I Don't Want to be Uncaffeinated" Logan meeting a mysterious benefactor. Until he isn't.

It wasn’t that he was opposed to going to the local coffee shop off the main drag. It didn’t require getting into his truck to get a cup of coffee. A half hour walk was a decent way to start off the morning. The thing was he preferred to relax around the house the morning after a closing shift at the bar, taking a leisurely shower followed by drinking his coffee while listening to the radio. 

However the water sputtered in the pipes before turning silent, the showerhead not providing a single drip.

Redressed in the shorts he fell asleep in he tried the kitchen sink to fill the coffee pot.

The sink was similarly dry.

The good news was that he didn’t smell rank. 

The bad news was that he needed a coffee. Like many a person he wasn’t human until he had caffeine.

Perhaps he was a little ripe by the time he walked into the coffee shop. He received two hellos and one clap to the shoulder when he entered, joining the thankfully short order queue. 

He was considering the merits of staying in the shop to drink his coffee (he would need to phone the hydro company, sooner rather than later, to find out if it was a street issue, or if it was just his house effected) and whether a medium or large would fulfill his needs (definitely a large) when he was fumbling for his pockets to pull out the money he needed. However, he pulled out less than a dollar’s worth. His wallet he left at home, knowing he didn’t need a license to walk. His unused ashtray in his truck held extra change but that too was left in his driveway.

“I can pay for you.”

Clyde barely looked up in time to see the man who breezed past him, not in any manner of impatience, moving in a remarkably easy manner despite long limbs. There shouldn’t have been any fluidity but somehow he managed it, money ready as though he was a regular at the shop. The woman at the till did recognize him, greeting him as Stan, though Clyde didn’t recognize him at all. Prepared two cups even, one for him and one for Stan. 

“Thank you Ms Leigh,” Stan said, a friendly lilt continuing to colour his voice. Coffee in hand he made his way to the door but not without turning his smile to him. “See you around.”

Clyde almost forgot to pick up his own coffee. 

*

“Mellie, I’m telling you I’ve never seen this guy before but if Leigh knows him than clearly I should. She knows everyone.” 

He managed to catch Mellie on her lunchbreak, one of the few she doesn’t take with Joe. If there was anyone to know the pulse and backbone of their hometown it would be any of the women who work at the salon. 

She repeated her stance with a punctuation of her fork, not stabbing at the last piece of lettuce of her salad but towards him. “The only Stan I know of is eighty-years old, born and raised in Charlotte. He’s not new by any definition of the word.”

“I heard Leigh say his name.” Finished his own sandwich, utensils abandoned, he tangled one hand into his hair and tugged on the inside of his lip with his teeth. Harder than he intended to. 

“What does he look like then?”

Releasing his lip to sigh he shrugged his free shoulder. “Red hair.” Admittedly that was what primarily caught his attention, the way his hair looked like he too hadn’t showered that morning. Poufy from bed, yet to be tamed. Mellie appeared to be making an effort, expression pensive. “Ah, tall.” He could still hear his voice, the smile that lit up his – “Blue eyes.”

“Tall and blue eyes? Now that reminds me – ahh, Marie mentioned that she saw the prettiest blue eyes she had ever seen – but it was a shame that he was a redhead! Now I remember.” Setting her fork down she nodded and continued her recollection. “She said he works at a… I can’t remember if it was an antiques shop or a furniture store. But he wasn’t a Stan. Marie didn’t remember herself, only that it was a strange name for a strange man.” 

“He seemed normal to me,” Clyde countered, taking a sip of his water. After his experience with the coffee shop, their brew too strong, he decided the coffee from his coffee maker was his safest bet. 

“You talked to him for less than a minute,” she reminded only to add a smirk. “I’d recommend going back to the coffee shop in hopes to run into him again, but you’ve already vowed to steer away from that place.”

He quickly shook his head. No redhead who wasn’t named Stan was worth that kind of suffering. No matter how pretty his eyes were.

*

Mellie promised that she would speak to Marie to find out about the friendly stranger who bought him sub-par coffee but either Marie lacked additional information or more important gossip came up to nudge Clyde’s inquiries to the side. Whatever the case was Clyde was uninformed and forgot about it in the span of days. Between his shifts at work and the few hours he managed to squeeze in with Jimmy he was kept busy by his own doings. Last thing he had time to do was wave goodbye to Jimmy when he drove off on his regular weekend pilgrimage.

It left him to the bar on Friday night, along with everyone else who had received their weekly pay cheque. The evening crowd grew larger and louder as it made way to night, more of the locals filtering in for drinking and mingling. 

Most people moved about, going from table to table to drink and socialise and coming up to the bar to order drinks and banter some more. Serving and cleaning as he went Clyde didn’t notice the man who was at the opposite end, gaze shifting from his drink to the crowd and back. The other bartender must have served him because Clyde knew he hadn’t spoken to him. 

It wasn’t until he lifted his chin up, a huff drowned out by the music and general din, that the light caught his hair properly, turning it a burnished bronze.

He had just swallowed down the rest of his drink, setting it down on the polished wood with a hard clink of finality, when Clyde stationed himself in front of him, raising his voice just in time as he stood. “I owe you a drink,” Clyde announced.

Eyes startled back from the door, blue eyes dimmed by the stretch of shadows between light fixtures. They met Clyde’s eyes, recognition shifting into place with a laugh. “You don’t need to do that for me.”

“You’re leaving early for a Friday night,” Clyde continued, spying the slim hand that hadn’t left the ledge of the bar yet, a promising sign. “I want to return the favour, so long as you don’t have plans that I’m keeping you from.”

He faltered, gaze flitting back to the door, sheepish when he glanced back. “Does a date with my television count?”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind that you’re a half hour late.” Clyde took the victory when he sat back down, taking the empty glass, a quick question following to counter the urge to smile. “What were you drinking?”

“Since it’s your favour, you surprise me.”

The smile given to him pulled at Clyde’s mouth but he turned around before he could be called out. A quick sniff to the glass provided the remnants of sweet liquors so he started to round up a couple of bottles. It took him less than a minute to present a fresh glass and beverage. “I never did get to thank you,” Clyde commented, when his stranger took a sip, nodding his approval. “And not having seen you around I didn’t know if I’d ever get the chance.”

“I’ve only been here for two weeks.” A wiggle of his fingers against the glass, a short hesitation, he took another drink. “I like it here, better where I had been, but everyone knows everyone that to be the new one, it – I’m not excluded, but people prefer watching me than welcoming me. I’m not used to that – well, people have always watched me but more like watching a sitcom, waiting for me to take the next pratfall. I wanted something better, I thought I’d no longer be the joke and now I’m rambling to the first person who wanted to talk to me and actually thank me for being a decent human being.”

Clyde kept his mouth shut, waiting for him to finish, expression patient. “You bought me a coffee Monday morning. You don’t know me but everyone in town knows that on a Monday, and forced to actually go out to get my caffeine, that you are not only decent but a brave person. Most people wouldn’t do that for me.”

He looked him over bemused. “You have that kind of a reputation?”

“On a Monday morning and decaffeinated, yes.” The smile that made those blue eyes light up finally drew out a proper smile from him. “Clyde Logan.”

The smile didn’t show any sign of fading and Clyde took his hand when he extended it. “Stensland.”

Clyde shook his hand, cocking his head. “First or last?”

Smile lines quickly popped up around Stensland’s eyes. “The only one.”

Half an hour later, Stensland onto his following drink, Clyde decided he was quite happy with the only one sitting in his corner.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wish you can follow me on [Tumblr](http://centurytwitch.tumblr.com).


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